1917 Season Recap — Northern League
Payson, Jerome back at the top — and better?
The same two teams that ruled the Northern League in 1916 led the way again in '17, the Payson Longhorns and the Jerome Copper Miners.
The 'Horns have been the dominant franchise of the past decade or so, winning their fifth-regular season championship in the past eight years and will advance to the post-season for the sixth-straight season. Jerome will make a return trip to the playoffs after a drought and will hope for better October returns than last season.
Pitching ruled in Payson yet again, with the rotation of
Charley Hall, Bill Burns and
Pete Schneider combining for 83 wins. Hard to top that. Here is their line for the season:
Code:
Player # Role Birthday Bats Throws ERA W L S WHIP
STARTERS
Charley Hall 39 SP 7/27/1885 Left Right 2.01 26 8 0 1.07
Bill Burns 17 SP 1/29/1880 Both Left 2.58 26 12 0 1.08
Pete Schneider 6 SP 8/20/1895 Right Right 2.92 21 3 0 1.05
It was pretty much the same formula as past years offensively as well, i.e. the
Tris Speaker and Company show. Speaker, the team's starting CF batted a robust .341 with 79 RBIs. LF
Guy Zinn had a league best 124 RBIs. SS
Donie Bush had a nice .345 average with 86 RBIs and 60 stolen bases (maybe upstaging Speaker as the MVP?). Throw in RF
Danny Moeller's .304 average with 62 RBIs and it's easy to see why the pitching crew was so successful in the W-L column. Scratch 3 runs across, and the game was pretty much in the bag...
If Jerome had the offense that Payson had, the Copper Miners might have matched the Longhorns' gaudy W-L numbers. Pitching-wise, Jerome had the best ERA in the league (2.87) and held opponents to .234 average (second lowest in the league).
But Jerome hitters just didn't produce the same fireworks. If you're looking for a hitting superstar on this team like Speaker or Bush, you'd be pretty disappointed. Only two players,
Edd Roush and
Doc Miller, had averages better than .300. Both platooned at left field. Roush hit .311, and Miller hit .349. CF
Clyde Millan was the high RBI man, with 71.
This will be an intriguing playoff series. At first glance, you'd have to say that Payson is the heavy favorite. But Jerome has pitching that can keep them in any game ...
As for the rest of the league, hats off to the Kayenta Turquoise Warriors! The blue crew hasn't finished any higher than fifth since 1908. This year, they were third. OF
Casey Stengel had a great year in Navajo country, batting .308 with 106 RBIs and eight homers. Pitcher
Rube Marquard was 23-10. (Personally, I'm rooting for them to improve)...
Prescott and Flagstaff, who usually are up among the leaders, had really off years. No pitcher from the Antelopes had a winning record, and only one Lumberjack hurler had a positive W-L record. Flagstaff 1B
Steve Yerkes likely won't hold on to his Big Stick honor, but he had a great year for a bad team — .289, 96 RBIs, 10 HRs, .761 OPS.
Here are complete standings from the NL in 1917:
Code:
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Payson 106 56 .654 - 109-53 -3 54-27 52-29 9-7 34-25 * W1 7-3
Jerome 91 71 .562 15.0 94-68 -3 47-34 44-37 7-6 31-28 - L1 4-6
Kayenta 85 77 .525 21.0 83-79 2 39-42 46-35 9-6 31-23 - L1 4-6
Grand Canyon 84 78 .519 22.0 84-78 0 46-35 38-43 10-8 34-31 - W1 6-4
Prescott 74 88 .457 32.0 72-90 2 32-49 42-39 13-10 27-26 - W1 5-5
Flagstaff 73 89 .451 33.0 74-88 -1 36-45 37-44 9-13 19-25 - L7 3-7
Sedona 69 93 .426 37.0 66-96 3 36-45 33-48 12-16 28-37 - W3 8-2
Cottonwood 66 96 .407 40.0 68-94 -2 31-50 35-46 3-6 19-28 - L1 3-7